We Are Already Outside Our Comfort Zone: How to Find Comfort in Uncertainty
I’m delighted to share my latest guest article, published by NZZ, one of Switzerland’s leading newspapers.
The article, “Wir sind bereits ausserhalb der Komfortzone” (“We Are Already Outside Our Comfort Zone”), explores a question that is becoming increasingly relevant for leaders, organisations and individuals:
What if the goal is no longer to get out of our comfort zone, but to learn how to find comfort within discomfort?
We are living through a period of extraordinary change. Artificial intelligence is transforming how we work, what skills we need and how organisations operate.
But beneath all the technological change is something deeply human:
How do we respond when we no longer feel certain about the future?
The moment when everything feels impossible
Imagine stepping into three-degree water.
Your breathing becomes rapid. Your heart races. Your skin burns. Your brain sends one clear message:
Get out. Now.
This is the cold shock response. It isn't weakness. It is physiology.
But something changes if you stay.
After roughly a minute, the body begins to regulate. Your breathing becomes calmer. The panic decreases. What felt impossible moments earlier becomes manageable.
The most important moment is not when the water becomes warmer.
It is when you realise that you can remain calm even though the water is still cold.
I see a powerful parallel with what is happening in organisations today.
Many people are already outside their comfort zone.
The question is no longer whether we can avoid uncertainty.
We can't.
The question is whether we can learn to navigate it.
AI is changing the workplace. But the real challenge is human.
The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 estimates that 39% of today's core skills will change or become outdated by 2030.
At the same time, organisations are adopting AI at an extraordinary pace.
This creates an uncomfortable reality.
You can have a secure position today and still discover that some of the skills that made you successful yesterday are no longer enough tomorrow.
So perhaps the question shouldn't be:
“How do I keep my job?”
Perhaps it should be:
“How do I remain relevant?”
That is a much more uncomfortable question.
Because remaining relevant requires us to keep learning, experimenting, adapting and sometimes becoming a beginner again.
And for experienced professionals, that can be particularly challenging.
We are often comfortable being competent.
We are much less comfortable being new.
The survival mode trap
When people experience uncertainty, they can easily move into survival mode.
Our attention narrows. We seek control. We protect what we know. We become more cautious.
Survival mode can help us deal with immediate threats.
But it is not where innovation, learning and transformation thrive.
This creates a paradox for organisations.
At exactly the moment when companies need people who are willing to learn, experiment and adapt, uncertainty can cause people to become more protective of what they already know.
This is why I believe the traditional idea of the “comfort zone” needs to evolve.
We often ask:
How do we get people out of their comfort zones?
But what if people are already out?
The conditions of yesterday are not coming back.
Instead, we need to learn something different:
How do we find comfort in discomfort?
Comfort is a state we can train
Comfort is not necessarily a place.
It can be a trained state.
Cold-water swimming has taught me this repeatedly.
The water doesn't become warmer because I have more experience.
My nervous system becomes better at responding to the experience.
The same principle applies to uncertainty.
We can train ourselves to regulate our reactions, remain present, make decisions without having all the answers and adapt when circumstances change.
I see three capabilities as particularly important:
1. Courage
Courage gets us into the water.
It is the willingness to take the first step without having complete certainty.
Courage doesn't mean the absence of fear.
It means moving forward while fear is present.
2. Resilience
Resilience helps us stay in the water.
It is the ability to regulate ourselves when things become difficult and recover when we are challenged.
Resilience isn't simply “pushing through.”
It is learning how to stay connected to ourselves under pressure.
3. Adaptability
Adaptability helps us move through the water.
The route is rarely perfectly predictable.
We need to observe, adjust, learn and keep moving.
This is especially important in a world shaped by AI, where yesterday's knowledge can quickly become outdated.
Courage gets us started. Resilience keeps us going. Adaptability helps us navigate.
The route is never a straight line
One of the strongest lessons I've learned from open-water swimming is that the shortest route isn't always the route that gets you there.
When crossing the English Channel, swimmers don't simply swim in a straight line from one coast to another.
The tides move you.
The current changes.
The conditions change.
The navigator on the support boat continuously adjusts the course.
The destination remains the same.
The route changes.
I believe leadership in times of uncertainty works in exactly the same way.
Good leaders don't necessarily have a perfect plan.
They have a clear direction and the courage to adjust the route.
They don't confuse flexibility with weakness.
They understand that adapting is part of the journey.
And perhaps most importantly, they don't try to make the journey alone.
No one crosses the English Channel alone
An English Channel crossing requires a support boat.
The swimmer is the one doing the physical work, but the crossing depends on an entire team: the navigator, observers and support crew.
Nobody in that boat makes a swimming stroke.
Yet without them, the swimmer may never reach the other side.
Leadership is similar.
A leader's role isn't always to be the strongest person in the room.
Sometimes it is to be the support system that allows other people to perform at their best.
To see potential before it becomes visible.
To provide clarity when someone is overwhelmed.
To give honest feedback.
To create enough trust for people to take risks.
And sometimes, when someone says, “I can't do this anymore,” leadership isn't about saying:
“You can do it!”
Sometimes it is about providing reality:
“You have 90 minutes left. Keep swimming.”
From survival mode to Peak Flow
The journey out of survival mode doesn't lead directly into Peak Flow.
There is a process.
It begins with awareness.
Then courage.
Then resilience.
Then adaptability.
And eventually, when our mind, body and emotions begin working together rather than against one another, we can access a different state:
Peak Flow.
Peak Flow is not about creating perfect conditions.
It is about learning to perform, decide and stay present even when conditions are challenging.
I have experienced this journey personally.
From waking up in an emergency room after severe hypothermia to becoming a six-time World Champion in ice swimming, the transformation did not happen overnight.
It took years of training, setbacks, uncertainty and learning to trust my body and mind.
There was never one giant leap.
There were thousands of small decisions to stay.
One breath longer.
One stroke longer.
One uncomfortable decision longer.
And eventually, what once felt impossible became part of my capacity.
That is what resilience training can do.
It doesn't necessarily remove the discomfort.
It expands our ability to meet it.
The future belongs to people who can stay present in uncertainty
AI will continue to transform our workplaces.
New tools will emerge.
Roles will change.
Skills will evolve.
Some jobs will disappear, and entirely new ones will be created.
But beneath all of this, the human challenge remains.
Can we remain curious when we feel threatened?
Can we keep learning when we are no longer experts?
Can we make decisions without having complete information?
Can we regulate ourselves when uncertainty becomes uncomfortable?
Can we support others while navigating our own uncertainty?
These are not soft skills.
They are future capabilities.
The future doesn't belong only to those who know the most.
It belongs to those who can learn, adapt, regulate and keep moving when the answer isn't obvious.
We are already outside the comfort zone
Perhaps this is the biggest shift we need to make.
We don't need to wait for the next transformation, restructuring or technological disruption to prepare ourselves.
We are already in the water.
The question is:
Will we spend our energy trying to get out?
Or will we learn how to breathe, regulate, adapt and move forward?
Because Peak Flow doesn't happen when the water becomes warm.
It happens when we learn that we can stay calm while it is still cold.
And that is where the real magic begins.
Read the full NZZ article
My full article “Wir sind bereits ausserhalb der Komfortzone” was published by NZZ as part of its Artificial Intelligence + Health @ Work series.
Want to explore your own Peak Flow?
If you want to go deeper into the mental and physical principles behind Peak Flow, you can explore my Peak Flow Coaching Booklet and start building the skills that help you perform with greater clarity, resilience and presence
You can also book a free 1:1 coaching clarity call with me to explore where you are today, what is holding you back and what your next step could be.
And if you want to explore more stories about resilience, uncertainty, flow and human potential, listen to my podcast Out of Comfort Zone on Spotify or YouTube.
If you're interested in my upcoming book From Fear to Peak Flow, join the early access list to receive updates, tools and stories designed to help you unlock your highest potential.
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